IAB, the interactive advertising bureau, released a study that most advertisers/marketers believe (!) that within 3-5 years, orginial programs in digital video will become as important as television broadcast. The survey asked 297 media buyers - and two thirds (!) said they will be shifting television adverstising money to digital video. The full research is available as a PDF here:

At least when it comes to engagement. Unfortunately, there are no links, so there is close to zero value in Instagram as a traffic referral platform. But it makes up to it by being so simple and easy that user engagement with posts is way beyond any other social network. Interesting blog on a Forrester study about "likes" - the research shows 4,21% of fans interact with an instagram post on average (based on >1mn users), while Facebook reaches 0,07% and Twitter some 0,03%. That's not a different ballpark, it's a different planet. Especially when you're not doing social media to generate traffic or sales as a first priority, but want to do something for your brand, Instagram is a must.

That's not some Mashable-intern's view, but from an interview with Steve Grove, "Director of Community Partnerships" (whatever that is) at Google. The Interview is older (End of 2013), but now that Vic Gundotra is gone and all kinds of rumors take over, it is very interesting to read. He says there will be "big developments" for photos in 2014, and that G+ could be to "live video" what Youtube was/is to recorded video.

The earnings report does not detail how many Twitter users would be mobile only, but close to 4/5 of the total user base of 255 monthly active users (MAU) are described as "mobile" with a yearly growth of 31%. Another key takeaway is ad revenue (approx. 80% from mobile) of 226mn USD (of overall revenue 250mn USD, representing a YoY growth of 119%).

Apr 28, 2014

Every social network claims to be the best destination for people to use as a second screen while watching TV. But so far, I never heard of Tumblr as a top destination (and in Germany, this might take a while, if it ever reaches that point). But a study from pulsar shows, with regards to MTV, that Tumblr was more popular than Twitter in a 11-day period. Tumblr might not have the volume of posts, but highly shareable content that is a lot more longlasting than Twitters. Read an artcle with a summary of the research's key findings here:

As always with research, facts and figures, there is of course a study that shows the opposite .-) This one shows over a two week period and 12,000 users that Twitter must be the queen of second screens.

Facebook, Google and Twitter offer app install ads and this whole area seems to be in a very dynamic time currently. Because the app stores are somehow still "Yahoo 1998" - they feature top lists and apps in categories. There may be wonderful apps hidden somewhere that are simply not discovered by anyone. How bad it is can be seen here:
If Apple or Google feature you in their stores - it is basically the your only chance to be successful without investing trillions in advertising.

Generating usage and traffic for your app will be one of the core tasks for the future. Good thing that Google is there to help. This kind of ads and even links from Facebook posts or tweets that deeply link into apps will become really important. New Google product:

Apr 26, 2014

Good read on CNET: Facebook, Google and Twitter in competition aroundmobile advertising - all are offering mobile app 'install ads', Twitterbought a mobile ad network and Facebook will probably launch one. This is apretty big move - to place ads outside Facebooks own digital properties.Imagine they place ads in apps that use the Facebook Login - they couldtake their superior targeting outside.

Apr 25, 2014

Facebook goes 'quantified self' and buys a fitness tracker. 'moves' has been downloaded over 4mn times on iOS and Android and works in the background of your phone - constantly tracking your position and accelerometer. It can automatically detect if you walk, drive a car, ride a bike or if you took a subway, and displays stats to your everyday movements. Differently from recent acquisitions like WhatsApp or Oculus I am not sure if this won't become a 'blue' app and a Facebook feature, as Facebook is unbundling the 'the big blue app' into single-purpose apps (think of messenger and paper).

Apr 24, 2014

Very interesting report from Adobe about social engagement. The study contains insights on Facebook CTR development (growing and growing) and shows how auto-play videos work: Video plays are up 785% YoY.

Apr 23, 2014

Q1 numbers are in. And again, the most impressive numbers are the mobile stats. You cannot overestimate the managerial achievement of recognizing the mobile shift early enough and leading Facebook into the post-desktop-era. Many think that's normal, but Facebook would not have been the first giant to not be able to quickly react to fundamental, yet well-camouflaged changes. Anyway: basically, mobile advertising on Facebook started at the beginning of 2012. In q3 2013, it overtook desktop advertising in volume. Now it makes 59% of ad revenues. And from 1.28 billion monthly active users, over 1 billion (!) are mobile. And roughly one third of those, 341 million, were mobile exclusive in the past month. So approximately 1 in 4 users of the total Facebook user base does not use the website at all. Impressive.

Social media can be good and bad, but one thing is for sure: It gives people the opportunity to raise their voice and express how they feel about something. In extension, it makes it a lot harder to pull of marketing bulls*it on people. Even if things get out of proportion - like 99% of the time your product or service is great, but you produced one huge big desaster - that desaster is considered a story worth to be told - then people will tell it. In this case the New York Police wanted people to post photos using the hashtag #MyNYPD to show how well citizens and police force live together. And people used the hashtag to show police abuse and violence. That's how it can go on social media.

Socialbakers released a study that shows 75% of Facebook brand page posts are photos. Understandable since you can brand them, hoping that people will recognize your signature while scrolling through the news feed and may stop to see what you post. Plus, a photo says more than a thousand words - and can be used on all other social networks as well. And 87% of the most shared posts are photos, the research says: so obviously this works.

There's a bunch of studies that tell us that we look at our smartphones 100+ times a day. I got so tired of it, I am trying out a Pebble smartwatch to sort out relevant and irrelevant notifications at my wrist without always taking out that 5" thingy. But that just means that I exchanged screens, not changed my overall behaviour. This research here from Flurry shows that the number of people who launch apps 60+ times a day has doubled over the past year. Flurry's study includes 1.3 billion mobile devices (reportedly...), so it should be pretty accurate.

App discovery is still a desaster, and so is app marketing. Reminds me of 1999, where startups burnt their money in print and TV ads to make their domain known. Now, you will have banners telling people to install something. Facebook offers mobile ads that deep link to the app store, and for normal posts, you have the possibility to post links that either go deep in the app (if the user has installed it) or sends them to the app store to install. It is about time that Google offers similar products. Since the mobile world is basically an app world (80% of tablet/smartphone time is spent in apps), there have to be more and more app offers and therefore better opportunities to advertise them. Now we will get install ads in search and Youtube as well as deep linking to Adwords.

Apr 22, 2014

Most of my clients run social media as an effort to generate traffic. Image/branding, customer dialog etc. are clearly lower priorities. And Facebook is the undisputed leader in referring traffic to their sites, thanks to the newsfeed algorithm and its unbelievable usage stats. But second in referrals? Not Twitter, not Tumblr, not Vine, not Youtube - all platforms that are more discussed than Pinterest. I cannot find any usage stats for Germany, but in the US, Pinterest generates a lot of traffic and this is not only because of their user base, but also rooted in the structure of how the service works. If you have enough photos, that is.

Apr 19, 2014

Still nothing official, but I read the rumors 100 times now and when CNET covers it, I believe there's something to it. And it is logical, too: a shift from hardware (that has nothing to do with the original business) to software while smartphone, tablets and wearable sensors keep improving at an exponential pace - this might even be a model for many other companies, too. First and foremost automotive - I never understood why they would build hardware into their cars (that are supposed to be on the roads for 15 to 20 years) instead of sensor-connected but otherwise dumb screens that become smart by always-improving android and iOS apps - owned by the car manufacturer. Pretty much like a pebble smartwatch, where 95% of the smartness is in the phone, not the Bluetooth-connected watch.

Apr 18, 2014

Very interesting infographic about the search and social advertising for Q1 2014. Especially interesting is the comparison between Q4 2013 and Q1 2014 in contrast to Q1 2014 versus Q1 2013 (YoY). For example: Cost per click in social advertising in Q1 2014 was 26% lower than in Q4 2013 - showing that Christmas advertising madness on Facebook with very limited space increased the price for clicks. But on a year over year comparison, cost per click on Facebook for the first quarter of this year was still 35% higher than in Q1 2013. Even more stunning is the advertiser revenue: In this year's first three months they made 31% less than in the last quarter of 2013, but the overall growth in a year over year comparison for Q1 2013 to 2014 is a stunning 191%. Social advertising is a lot more volatile and depending on seasons than search, but also has a bigger growth dynamic. But the click through rates (CTR) fell for social advertising while search had a plus in this area. Very informative figures provided by Kenshoo here.

Apr 17, 2014

Very good presentation about the internet of things, connected devices, wearables, smart TV etc. - or, as the Business Insider called it, the Internet of Everything. Used to get these from Mary Meeker (in a more extensive form and clearer conclusions), but still a very good look at the state we're in and where we're headed - a future where literally everything can connect to the web 'as us' or 'for us'.

I am a fan of Jeff Jarvis. Don't be misled by his easy language (describing the BILD newspaper as a 'Fox News with boobs' and using the f-word here and there) - he is one of the smartest persons around when it comes to the digitization of our world. And he is sensationally good when it comes to Journalism. He doesn't mince words in his response to the open letter that Matthias Döpfner, CEO of Axel Springer wrote to Eric Schmidt from Google. But besides the at times humorous way of saying things - concentrate on the things he says. It's worth reading it. Especially when you're from Germany.

NIce Infographic about millenials and their trust in traditional media. They obviously believe in people and not in institutions. This research states that they trust user generated content 50% more than media.

Apr 12, 2014

Older, but very interesting piece on business models for the internet of things on Readwrite. Google would agree. But if you ask Apple, for example, the money is the things and the internet is the way to sell them and lock customers in. And accidentally earn money with it, too.

Keen to see where we will be in 2019 on the road to this vision: There's a 'Imagining the Internet Center' at Elon University who conducted a research among experts about digital life in 2025. Key takeaway: more like electricity. Less visible. Ubiquitous. Embedded in everything. You can download the full study as a PDF.

Great - a real discussion is developing around the problem that the mobile web is becoming an app web - which in its current state is a closed, barely interconnected, very controlled environment and as such the opposite of the open browser web that made all these things possible.

ReadWrite: How Mobile Is Killing Innovation, And How Blockchain Can Save It.

Very interesting study on HBR.org: The Behaviors that Define A-Players. A huge amount of data was analyzed to find out what top employees have in common, and the most outstanding statistical differentiator seems to be that they set (and meet) goals others think were not reachable. Although less than 1 in 10 people think this would be a key indicator. Read more:

Apr 11, 2014

Facebook covers an eMarketer study about the UK mobile web in its business blog. Digital has surpassed broadcast TV in time spent, and mobile will surpass desktop very soon, with 50% smartphone and 38% tablet penetration in UK in 2014.

Quote from the interview describing a reaction to talkting about the mobile shift that I know too well:
"[...] there is probably a sense of 'Maybe soon'. Even inside my company [...] there were no small number of people on the staff who said 'Yeah, I believe you but I don't think we're there yet"

Apr 10, 2014

In a recently published study calles "the role of digital in TV", Google seems to prove that TV related activity on Youtube increased heavily over the years. They analyzed Google and YouTube searches (remember: YouTube is the second largest search engine in the world, right after Google), engagement and actions and it seems logical that people search for TV shows on these platforms - where else? On the other hand, you could expect that for 7-day-catch-up and additional info they would use the TV stations' websites (and to some extent, they find them through Google).

But why this remarkable growth dynamic? The study unfortunately only breaks down desktop/tablet on one hand and mobile on the other hand. My suggestion is that these millions and millions of people who own an Apple TV, Chromecast, Fire TV, Roku, Boxee or whatever else might hook up to TVs or is built-in (like Smart TV) always have YouTube at their hands. Reliable performance, and it always works with every hardware. Maybe this TV station is not integrated on your hardware with an app or maybe that TV station's iPad app does not feature Airplay... but you can always be sure that YouTube will. If you want to stream TV content to your TV, YouTube is the choice, and since these TV-connected grew significantly over the past years, this may explain the growth of TV-related activity on YouTube.

So, TV marketers will have to not only get their distribution straight but also think about using YouTube as a promotional channel for their content - or even as a primary digital distribution channel. There's one more finding that might interest them in this research [quote]: "Search, video and engagement activities, which show a positive correlation to viewership, can provide additional insight into a show's popularity." The big money, at least for TV stations, is still in broadcast advertising. This briefly mentioned "positive correlation" is what they are all looking for.

No one I know runs a Google+ page with the same enthusiasm that is put into Facebook. And no one I know gets significant traffic ourt of G+. The reasons to use the platform are, in most cases, some dubious but probable hunch about how it may help your search engine ranking, and that it would look bad if they were'nt there. Yes, some of my clients do hangouts with significant help by Google and reach good engagement, but the overall impact we can see is almost on Twitter level - or below. When I hear about "Best practices for business on Google+", I expect success stories and some information about how they were achieved. But not in this one. Google obviously still claims to have 500mn+ users and 70% of them are considered monthly active users. And the "best practice" is to use keyword rich titles, reach some +1s, grow your circles and make use of authorship. I'm going to share this on G+, just for fun.

Interesting Interview on Fire TV (we can't order it to Europe yet, wo we need media insights): Amazon's VP of gaming, Mikr Frazzini, explains the games strategy and how Fire TV is not there to target PS4 or Xbox, but to fill a gap between ultracasual games and high end games from the big games studios.

We had this with newspapers, then with print in general, now we reached yet another milestone - internet advertising in the US grew to over 42 bn and overtook broadcast TV. The internet ad market keeps on growing beyond other media, and somewhen in future we will have the mobile ad market overtake the desktop/web internet advertising volume.

Finally, someone is asking the question. When the iPad was launched, April 2010, I was concerned over apps vs the "free and open" internet. Of course, the app web has developed since then and there is some - basic - interplay of the mobile web and apps. For example when Facebook is delivering interesting links from friends in either apps or mobile browsers. But a true interconnectivity between apps is still far from reality, and this interconnectivity is still the very essence of what makes the web so fabulous. We will have to keep evolving the app world if we abandon the PC/browser web more and more.

I usually really like RWW - best coverage of the digital sphere in my eyes. But i strongly disagree with this one: You can't have 1.2bn users in a social network and not be a data hoarder. And history has shown that privacy, schmivacy, Facebook's assumed "bad image" did not slow down any growth or usage.

The professional, high-production-value TV show is the last frontier for traditional TV stations. Reaching audiences has become very easy with over the top internet distribution, even on their TV devices, and even the mechanics to measure and book TV ad campaigns are getting more and more similar between TV and Web (Youtube finally "switches" to a Nielsen metric soon). What a TV station has that others don't have, besides a brand that stands for audiovisual entertainment and a rapidly becoming worthless license to use over-the-air and cable distribution for linear programming are 1) their relations to advertisers and their agencies, 2) their knowledge of what might work on TV and 3) their relation to TV production companies. If anyone knows how to produce compelling audiovisual program, it should be TV stations. But hasn't Netflix shown that with just some user data, you can do the same? Personally I am not sure if "House of Cards" was a) as data driven as many people think it was (and if so, if this guarantees success) and b) not simply a genious creative that would have found its audience anyway. Obviously inspired by Netflix, Yahoo and Microsoft try to get into original programming, too. If they succeed, there's not much left for TV stations.

It is hard for me - especially in the German market - to see a real ROI from marketing activities on Twitter. Not having a newsfeed algorithm and lacking the user base and user activity of Facebook, its traffic contributions are very low and the visibility of activities probably is, too (now "pinned tweets" are the next approach to tackle this).
So I always made an argument to use Twitter to connect to people directly - depending on the business you're in this could be relationship marketing, PR or - in most cases - customer service. This very interesting study from March 2014, conducted by Simply Measured, gives an overview (US only) of how Twitter is currently being used as a customer service channel and concludes in 7 best practices.

I am a big fan of crowdfunding. A few years back, when certain industries could capitalize on old or inferior technology better than on new concepts (automotive, for example), the obstacles for a "newcomer" to introduce a technology were simply too high. This has changed. A fairphone has been built, the first true smartwatch, and a 300 USD 3D printer hits its Kickstarter goal in... 11 minutes. Crowdfunding will bring us everything that we, the consumers, really want.

After announcing the - for some competitors scary - Fire TV box, Amazon again launches new hardware: Dash, a smart Dongle that features a scanner and connects with an Amazon application through your own home WiFi. Meaning: You can walk through a department store, scan products that you like, and then compare the price at home, read recommendations and finally buy it - through Amazon. Although they communicate Dash as a stick to help you order products that you may have at home like groceries etc., Dash could basically turn all physical retail to a gigantic window shop for Amazon.

Apr 4, 2014

There are lots of articles that complain about declining organic reach on Facebook, and there are lots of statement s from Facebook basically saying "Post many highly emotional and relevant stories, and you will be fine - or pay for reach if your stories are not relevant".

TechCrunch published an interesting article today that tries to be as unbiased as possible explaining how the news feed works and why the current situation is inevitable. But they also explain where Facebook might have communicated better to page owners. It's a good and helpful read if you want to understand the situation, but don't bother to click if you are looking for quick fixes of your fan page problems.

As if Razorfish would generate a billion leads and generate serious business, they hide their study behind a registration that you can fill out with complete bull*** information. Like i did .-)The study is interesting though - it is called "The state of always on marketing study". Basically we learn that data-driven marketing is still not the common case - over 70% of marketeres fail to use behavioral data in their communications.

Very much like the "One Microsoft" strategy becoming a reality - i wrote before that I thought it was long overdue - Microsoft announced another decision that I expected to happen a lot earlier: They are giving away Windows for free. Of course, to us it sounds like just a desperate move, but for a company that made most of its fortune by selling operating systems to hardware manufacturers (and, by the time the iPhone was launched, made good money licensing the terrible "Windows Mobile 5.0") this is a huge step and the acknowledgement of a paradigm shift: As a provider of an operating system, you need to build a huge user base to attract consumers and by that attract developers & companies and then capitalize on facilitating business between the two. They should even consider paying hardware companies to include their OS well-priced devices rather than charging them. This //build conference might really mark a turning point for Microsoft.

And I can relate to that. I have owned a Fitbit, I have owned a Jawbone Up (which i used a lot, but after 2 devices broke within months I sold the third replacement on ebay) and currently I am using the Pebble Smartwatch which includes a Pedometer App and a Sleep Tracker, too. But I may ditch this one, too, if the apps that I expect won't come as quickly or in the quality I am expecting.

A very interesting study - free whitepaper download - by Endeavour Partners shows how people use activity trackers and wearable tech currently (US only). Over 10% of American adults own some sort of activity tracker, but usage declines over time of ownership. Similar numbers for wearable tech like smartwatches - after half a year, one third of consumers stop using their devices.

I sound like a broken record for almost 2 years. By now, at least everybody understood that the mobile shift a) is happening and b) does not mean that people are necessarily mobile, meaning we are using smartphones and tablets also at home, from our couch, using our home WiFi. This changes a lot for digital businesses. Not only do they need to offer mobile friendly (if not mobile first) websites, but also apps. Or, if they do not see any chance to launch a great app that will be frequently used by a mass of consumers: how they can ensure to get traffic in future. My biggest bet here still is social media. At least Facebook, most probably also Twitter are among the top 5 used apps. If you are strong there, you might generate referral traffic into your own app or to your mobile site. This does not mean that Google is not still the single most important traffic source for most sites, but the SEO/SEA-game does not change for the mobile web. For apps - and apparently people send more and more time in apps as opposed to mobile websites, it does..

I am suspicious. There are sane people in Brussels? And they get a vote on ending roaming charges by DEC 2015? And if this would not be good enough, the guarantee net neutrality?
At least that is what they say here, called "Connected Continent".

Apr 2, 2014

These huge companies are hard to change. The idea of bringing all the pieces together that Microsoft has at hand should be there for a decade or more. Imagine what Windows Phone could have done with an early deep gaming AND productivity integration with other Microsoft products. However, this years' "//build" seems to mark a real step forward. With stuff like this: Apps that work on all windows devices. No one is excited, because it should have been like this for a long time. But they should be excited, because it is a huge step.

We don't have the Rokus and Boxees in Europe, but Xbox, PS4, Apple TV and Chromecast. Welcome another player: Amazon. And despite the hardware, we have Watchever, Snap/Sky, maxdome (Germany) and will soon have Netflix, too (although I wonder which programs they plan to show). If it did not happen during the last years, now is the time to shit your pants when you are a linear TV station. I believe that they already lost a big part of the young audience, but there still was "plausible deniability" up to now. When the day comes where the BMW marketing managers and their media consultants have Kindle Fire TV or Chromecast at home and watch their TV shows via maxdome, their ad money will move from linear TV advertising elsewhere. Or at least a significant part of it.

Interesting blog post from Upworthy, one of those up and coming new type of journalistic platforms that is always named in the second tier after Buzzfeed when anyone talks about the future of Journalism. You can't copy that approach 1:1 when you're a general interest publisher, but you can at least take it as an inspiration to find your own way to move beyond CPM display advertising.http://blog.upworthy.com/post/81385633180/our-mission-is-huge-heres-how-were-building-the

When this article appeared on Cult of Mac, many of my friends & colleagues forwarded it to me. http://www.cultofmac.com/271225/appreciated-ios-7-feature-will-change-world/
If this really works, why isn't the whole world raving about it? This could be a total game changer.Now, the raving starts. A little. So maybe it really is feasible: Bringing the internet to remote areas. Or securing internet connection where many, many people want to go online through the same pipe. Maybe the world is not raving about this, because there are many huge company invested in technologies that would become obsolete? "Wired" writes about it, and to be honest, I trust the more than "Cult of Mac". And if this really works, you will see me ditching Android in a minute. http://www.wired.com/2014/03/apple-multipeer-connectivity/